The question he asked was pursuant to determining the overall health of the engine. A compression test is a very low cost and good indicator of that.
My feeling is that of the main and/or rod bearings were damaged by oil starvation he’d be either hearing a bearing knock or seeing the pressure dwindle at idle low enough to trip the oil pressure warning light. Other than oil pressure or knocking, there is no way to assess the bearing health short of pulling the bottom off. And there’s no sense doing that if the compression test proves the engine to be past its prime anyway.
The engine experienced operation with low oil level. The engine does not have a misfire and did not experience a overheat situation. The parts that could be damaged are the engine bearings. There is no reason to suspect low compression. Go ahead and do a compression test but don’t fool yourself that simply because these readings are good you have a healthy engine.
Yeah. You are correct. I wish they would stop driving it, so I could look at it.
True… I’m not a mechanic, just a hobbyist. I’m a certified welder/fabricator though and have spent years doing machine maintenance. Nothing suggested so far seem out of the realm of things I’m comfortable doing (I won’t do it if I’m not). I also tend to err on the side of maintenance when it comes to my engine so I have NEVER had to deal with a situation like this; I just wanted some input. I will however heed your warning and make sure I don’t get in over my head.
Most of the issues I’m having now deal with the fact that Someone is always driving it when I call to take a look at it… So I’m just trying to cover all speculations.
Once again thank you all for the assistance.
The white smoke is probably just water vapor, as already suggested, but when you do the compression test it’d be prudent to do a pressure leakdown test also. Just to be sure.
There is absolutely no evidence in the post that the engine experienced any problems whatsoever…including loss of oil pressure. Being low on oil does not starve the beqarings of oil unless the level drops below the pickup screen, and there’s no evidence that it did. The owner was simply told by Firestone that the engine had numerous oil leaks, the oil level was low, and he had a radiator leak. The OP simply asked what besides a compression test he could do to assess the condition of the engine overall before investing in going ahead with the Firestone recommended repairs.
The worry by the owner that his wife and daughter may have trashed the engine by driving with the oil level below full is not supported by any evidence that they actually did. The first place damage would have shown up is in the bearings, in the form of bearing knock.
His follow up post about the white smoke came after I’d posted, and I’ve recommended a leakdown test while he’s doing the compression test…just to be on the safe side.